Sony Xperia 1 IV review: A premium smartphone for wealthy photo and video enthusiasts

A $1,599.99 within the US (on pre-order) or £1,299 within the UK (out there now), Sony’s flagship Xperia 1 IV it is past the price range of many smartphone patrons. On paper, it has some spectacular specs, together with a 4K OLED show with Sony’s signature 21:9 side ratio (which it says is good for players), a real 85-125mm optical telephoto digicam, and the flexibility to document 4K video at 120fps. For the value, this cellphone should not solely be good, but in addition wonderful throughout the board. How is it shaped?

The Xperia 1 IV is very recognizable, with a particular tall and slim type issue to suit the 21:9 display screen. The cellphone can also be fairly slender, making it simple to grip even for these with pretty small arms.

Nevertheless, utilizing this cellphone with one hand is difficult. The cellphone is 71mm huge and 165mm tall, and also you want huge arms to succeed in from the highest to the underside of the display screen along with your thumb. With my small arms, I discovered that one-handed use required a relatively ungainly crab movement to maneuver the cellphone in my palm. That mentioned, it is troublesome to make use of lots of as we speak’s telephones comfortably with one hand, and Sony has some mitigation measures in place (see under).

The Xperia 1 IV is sort of slim at 8.2mm and comparatively gentle at 185g. As you’d anticipate from a premium cellphone, there is a certification for water and dirt resistance, particularly, a IP65/68 classification. The check includes immersion in a container stuffed with faucet water at a depth of 1.5 meters for half-hour. At residence, the equal may very well be unintentionally plunging right into a sink of water.

Each the back and front of the Xperia 1 IV are protected by Corning’s prime quality Gorilla Glass Victus. The again of my evaluate unit was matte black, however you too can go for white or purple. The end within reason clean, and by chance I did not choose up my fingerprints throughout testing. Regardless of the colour of the again plate, the digicam bump is black. He is tall and slim, and does not stick out an excessive amount of.

The perimeters home a superb number of buttons and ports. The ability button and quantity rocker are on the best edge, with the previous incorporating a fingerprint sensor. Additionally on this edge is a devoted button to launch the digicam and take a fast snapshot. The USB-C charging port and SIM cart are on the backside, whereas the highest edge homes a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The 6.5-inch OLED display screen gives a formidable 4K decision (3840 x 1644, 21:9, 643ppi), though this isn’t new for Sony: final yr Xperia 1III it had the identical spec, which might be laborious to beat. The 120Hz refresh price might be turned on and off, however there isn’t any LTPO assist, so there isn’t any dynamic refresh price change, right down to 1Hz, for extra battery life.

To alleviate the issue of navigating the display screen, Sony has applied a one-handed mode. You possibly can double-tap the house button to successfully clear round 40% of the display screen, and even select to put a small icon on the display screen that performs the identical perform. The display screen seems to be fairly unappealing in one-handed mode, nevertheless it’s efficient.

Among the many pre-installed apps is Sport Enhancer, which gives a number of customizations for gaming followers, together with correct audio and show settings, and permits dwell streaming to YouTube.

A give attention to media and gaming requires good stereo audio system, and the Xperia 1 IV delivers on this entrance. There’s loads of bass, not an excessive amount of treble, and no distortion at most quantity. Sony has retained its peculiar Dynamic Vibration system, whose depth is managed by an on-screen slider subsequent to the amount management. This supplies haptic suggestions associated to low tones, which could work effectively in some video games or with some types of music, however I discovered it unusual and worsening. A minimum of you may simply convey it right down to zero.

It is no shock to seek out Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset underneath the hood right here, together with 12GB of RAM. Nevertheless, I initially had some issues with geekbench 5 assessments. I usually do three runs of the CPU benchmark and take a mean, and I see little or no variance. This time the one core rating was 650 in a single run, with the opposite two scores 1229 and 1060. Issues settled down after a software program replace and the Xperia 1 IV bought common scores of 1060 (single core) and 3235 (multicore). That is very respectable, if not Vanguard.

The SIM cart can accommodate two 5G SIMs or one SIM and one MicroSD card in capacities as much as 1TB. There’s 256GB of inner storage, of which 30GB is consumed out of the field, leaving 236GB free.

That 30GB is utilized in half to accommodate all kinds of apps, together with some specialised ones offered by Sony. Video Professional can be utilized to stream dwell video to streaming companies; Cinema Professional has improved instruments for recording movies; and Photograph Professional is the primary utility for capturing nonetheless photographs. The cellphone may also be used as a monitor for a Sony Alpha digicam.

music skilled can be utilized to document high-quality audio and edit or merge tracks. Sounds recorded on the similar time (singing and instrumental accompaniment, for instance) may also be separated.

There are three rear cameras, all with the identical decision: 12MP f/1.7 huge angle (82°); 12MP f/2.3-f/2.8 (28°-20°) telephoto lens; and 12MP f/2.2 extremely huge angle (124°). The entrance digicam is a 12MP f/2.0 unit with an 83° discipline of view.

Sure, you learn that appropriately. One of many rear cameras is an 85–125mm telephoto lens providing 3.5x to five.2x true optical zoom. Zooming is a simple matter utilizing a slider, and normal point-and-click pictures is good. Nevertheless, the three apps talked about above are actually overkill for informal customers.

Sony ships the Xperia 1 IV with a 5,000 mAh battery, which stored the cellphone going for 12 hours and 48 minutes underneath the PC Mark for Android Work 3.0 battery life Check. Three hours of YouTube streaming on a full battery noticed it drop by 30%, suggesting a complete battery lifetime of 10 hours. That’s precisely half of what we observe with the OnePlus 10 Professional.

Sony doesn’t present a charger or cable, and says this reduces packaging by 50%, in addition to lowering delivery weight and lowering C02 emissions by 36% per unit. With no charger within the field, I did not check charging speeds, simply did what Sony suggests and used a random charger I had in use for one more machine. Within the UK, Sony sells a 30W quick charger for £49.99 (~$60).

I discovered that the cellphone bought a bit heat whereas charging and in addition whereas working the video. It is a concern on any cellphone, however particularly on a premium priced flagship cellphone.

Conclusions

Sony has expanded its Xperia vary with a flagship cellphone that echoes its predecessors by way of design and specs. The Xperia 1 IV’s 21:9 display screen side ratio and 4K decision might be welcomed by many, whereas the telephoto digicam’s true optical zoom is fascinating. Nevertheless, the multiplicity of digicam apps can confuse some customers.

In the long run, even with all its constructive factors, it have to be mentioned that the premium-priced Sony Xperia 1 IV will not be a mass-appeal cellphone.

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Specs of the Sony Xperia 1 IV

Dimensions	165 x 71 x 8.2 mm (6.50 in x 2.8 in x 0.32 in)
Weight	185g (6.53oz)
Display screen dimension	6.5 inches
Show	4K HDR OLED (3840 x 1644, 21:9, 643ppi)
Replace frequency	120Hz
Contact scan price	240Hz
colour vary	100% DCI-P3
Display screen-to-body ratio	84%
display screen safety	Gorilla Glass Victus
Mud and water resistance	IP65/68
working system	android 12
chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Cell Platform
RAM	12GB
Storage	256GB
MicroSD card reader	sure (shared SIM slot)
rear cameras	12MP f/1.7 huge angle (82°, OIS) • 12MP f/2.3-f/2.8 telephoto (3.5x-5.2x optical, OIS) • 12MP f/2.2 extremely huge angle (124°)
Frontal digicam	12MP f/2.0 huge angle (83°)
Audio	stereo audio system
3.5mm audio jack	Sure
Leisure	Dynamic vibration system
networks	2GGSM, 3GHSPA, 4G LTE, 5G
SIM	2x Nano SIM
Wifi	Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Bluetooth	5.2
NFC	Sure
Location	A-GPS, A-GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
USB	USB-C (USB 3.2, 5Gbps)
fingerprint sensor	Sure
battery capability	5000mAh
battery charging	30W (50% in half-hour)
wi-fi charging	sure (+ reverse cost)
Value	$1599.99 / £1299

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Options to think about

Smartphone makers have put a whole lot of effort into the digicam {hardware} and software program of their telephones in recent times, with a number of high-end telephones specializing in pictures options.

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